5 comments about How to Build a Kit Bike.

1. Good beginer book! Okay overview of building a kit bike. YOu want build a bike from scratch with this book!



2. Being a shade tree wrench and finding my self interested in maybe building a Hawg I picked up this book. If your looking for detailed information, I'd move on. Otherwise, this is a pretty good overview of what to expect painted in pretty broad strokes. There are some useful tidbits that would probably make it worth the price for anyone who has never touched a bike before. He goes through a number of builds...all choppers. It can be a bit repetitive in places but, he gets a little more indepth on diffrent subjests from build to build. I think it would have been better if he had stuck to one build and just covered the alternatives.



3. I did not get a lot out of this book. I found it uninformative and
   and to general in the info provided. Not very impressed with this author. It was not much not much help to me.



4. There was some good info in this book. It shows you how to line up the primary, and some basic stuff like that. I wish they would have covered the swingarm a little better. I pressed the bearings in from the wrong direction.



5. I built a kit bike a while back. Without this book it would have been a tough go as there is no such thing as an instrution manuel. Just a big box of parts.(500+-).

1 comments about How to Build a Bonneville Salt Flats Motorcycle (Custom Builder).

1. This is more a story of a group effort on how *not* to proceed, ie, "Learn from my mistakes" been-there-done-that 1st hand account. A very entertaining read, it helps to demonstrate that LSR [land speed record] racing is NOT for the light of pocket; the "budget" effort detailed in this story would have been impossible without the considerable sponsorship noted and emphasized (& rightly so) throughout.
   
   This story is about the wrenching leading up to the LSR event, & very short on the "rider's experience" as the author/builder chose to have a professional drag racer ride his machine during the actual record attempt.
   
   Like I said, this is more about "How I bungled things, watch & see what can go wrong" than some formulaic "this is what you need to do" and manifestly more enjoyable reading because of it!

2 comments about Motorcycles (Pull Ahead Books).

1. As a teacher and a mother of a son with a reading learning disability, I highly reccomend this book. The photographs engage my son, and encourage him to read the text. He has read the book everyday since he received it.



2. Excellent pictures and nice story. (I should know, I have read it at least a hundred times to my two-year-old son at his request.)

2 comments about Honda CRF Performance Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop).

1. I have the service manual, and that's great. But how do I put on my "quick shot?" This has all the performance stuff.
   Up to date (no old, lame photos...very nice pictures)
   Well laid out.
   Good info on what products do, why get them, what the advantages are.
   I also like that it rates the difficulty of the project...like 3 stars hard or one star easy. That way I know what I'm getting into before I take my bike apart.
   Great book. Really great.



2. This is a great book. I will admit, I use it more for the detailed color photos than using it to make modifications to my bike. A lot of good info and procedures. It's great to find a book published specifically for the Honda CRF's. Go out and get a copy today!

No comments about Triumph Motorcycles: From Speed-Twin to Bonneville.

3 comments about Scooters: Everything You Need to Know (Everything You Need to Know S.).

1. Just when I thought nothing could top the Dregni's earlier book (Illustrated MotorScooter Buyer's Guide), they have come up with another masterpiece with their new book Scooters! In Scooters! the authors trace the history and development of the scooter and make an ambitious attempt to show the effect of the scooter on society and popular culture. The book boldy attempts a full tour de force of the wonderful world of scooters and scootering.... Visually, the book is dazzling. Drawing from archival photos, advertisements, and brochures, many long forgotten or unknown images appear for the first time. Like the text, the photographs are often whimsical and attempt to cover the full panorama of scootering....If you are looking for a book to introduce a friend to the joys and romance of scootering, this is definitely the book. Quite possible, it is the best scootering book of all time. --John Gerber, American Scooterist magazine, Autumn 1996



2. It is a corruption of the review process when the previous reviewer posts a review dated July 1998 for a book not published until January 2006.



3. After reading this book one could be mistaken that scooters were invented in America and that the cushman is a popular scooter known the world over. The influence of the japanese and others seems to be totally down graded to less than one paragraph. Any scooter buff worth his/ her weight would be offended at the american bias that this "publication" sprouts. Never have I been so annoyed at the total brainwashing that seems to be portrayed here. If this is what Americans need to make them feel better then I suppose it has some use. As for the title; everything you need to know.... what a lot of crock.
   Of course this is only my opinion... I suppose it is just as biased as many of the publications that think the vespa is the only scooter, It would have been nice to read information that I could use. Oh well, back to the bookstore.
   :(

5 comments about American Borders: A solo circumnavigation of the United States on a Russian sidecar motorcycle.

1. Ms. King is an awesome chick! She should be on the talk show circuit, and probably will be!



2. I began researching the Ural sidecar rig in 2000. At that time, the bike was still relatively unreliable and more suited to those with a penchant for tinkering. Ms. King's book really highlights the flaws in those early bikes, and provides an entertaining and down-to-earth look at how the manufacturer of a new and/or inferior product must go through the painful process of constant refinement and change in order to survive in a very competitive market.



3. From the moment Carla's motorcycle started up the road to adventure, I was with her - in the sidecar - the whole way. You discover, laugh, get pissed off, and at times, unsure what's next as King curves and glides across America. Great adventurous read. All the people you meet. I felt as though I was meeting them too. Love the Canadian border/US border group. When the bike breaks down, and it does - the uncertainity of - are we done now? Hope not. And, then on the road again. Makes you want to take off and discover the jewels awaiting you in a unique travel mode, especially for a woman. Where to next, Carla?



4. Carla King and I have never met. However, we became friends when she read my book, then sent me her own. I'm a scooter person, I've never riden a motorcycle. Yet it didn't take much imagination to ride along right behind her, because every bend in the road brought a new adventure. Carla's voice is authentic, engaging, and best of all ... enduring.
   
   I've known men who have taken off on a motorcycle trip to South America, but this is a different kind of journey. I think that it takes a lot of courage for an attractive, single woman to set off on the road alone. Whether by bike or motorcycle, it takes more than an adventurous spirit to manage the moments when you pull up alongside a motorcycle gang, or the small town loner. It takes the ability to rapidly sort options and defuse potentially dangerous situations with a tool set of inner skills.
   
   Carla has this ability in spades. And she's also got first-rate mechanical skills. Whether her trip was prompted by heartbreak, or her heart's longing for the open road, she got what she was looking for and so much more! I read the book with delight, like enjoying a box of chocolates all by yourself; and I highly recommend it.
   
   Alexia Parks, author of Rapid Evolution, Seven Words That Will Change Your Life Forever!



5. This book book was an ok motorcycle travel book. Eventhough it was published in 2007, it is about a trip King takes in 1996. The writing was decent, but I never really got sucked into the story. It was interesting to hear about her troubles riding the Ural. I don't know anything about Urals, but I wondered if they are better machines today than when she rode hers.
   
   It was a decent read but there are better motorcycle travel books out there.

4 comments about Motocross Racers: 30 Years of Legendary Dirt Bikes.

1. This is an excellent book with high quality photos on every page. Good representation for most all-brands. Can reccomend for sure. A safe purchase in this case.



2. Having been a huge MX fan through the 70's and 80's, I remember almost all of these bikes. The photography is excellent and the stories about how each bike was important in the evolution of design is great reading. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that I wish it was about twice as thick... It's still a good value for the money though.



3. It's a delightful book - BUT if you expected a selection of bikes that included your own, don't count on it. If you had a big-bore machine, you're going to love this book. If you are one of the MANY who didn't, you may find this book a disappointment, in not being two or three times as thick.
   
   The VMX world can be grateful for this book. But a new edition or addition is needed.
   Definately Recommended.



4. Motocross Racers 30 Years of Legendary Bikes
   By: Ray Ryan
   
   
   This book is full of heart warming photos and facts about the bikes that started it all. I would recommend this book to all of those people who would like to learn about motocross history and people who make motocross a part of there own lives. This book is not for people who would like to sit down and read a nice picture book. This book has cold hard facts about who made bikes back then for motocross and also how they have changed throughout the years and the very first racers with these bikes.
   
   
   I this book because it taght me what bikes were like a long time ago and because of how it went within the bike to show you how the engines and the whole bike really evolved from that time to present day.
   
   
   This book teaches readers about the past in motocross. By the ebd of this book readers will have a full understanding of motocross and there values.
   
   
   
   I would rate this book for about 4 ½ stars

5 comments about Sportbike Performance Handbook (Motorbooks Workshop).

1. This is *the* book that really breaks down the fundamentals of the various sections of motorcycle technology, as well as the physics involved, to a level understandable by the interested mechanically-minded person. While I would not recommend it for someone completely new to the field of motorcycling (unless they had a very mechanically-proficient background), it fills the gap between backyard wrench and engineering student beautifully. Cameron's writing style is concise yet descriptive; all subjects are treated with not only a thorough understanding and focus on the basic points, but Cameron's long experience in design, engineering, and as a race mechanic. His book was one of the inspirations for my own, "The Motorcycle Fuel Injection Handbook", and this is the only publication that is suggested inside of my own book. Worth the price.



2. Kevin Cameron, as always, manages to present very complex, highly technical information in an easy to access way. No specific bike tuning or tricks, but solid information about the underlying phenomena that form the basis for performance upgrades. Kevin approaches each system in the bike separately while referencing the whole, which really helps to deepen an understanding of why the bike is the way it is.



3. I found this book a very interesting and informative read. If you are not interested in technicalities then this is not a book for you. The book explains all areas of sportbike mechanics and how to get different types of performance from them - engine, gearbox, electrics, suspension etc.
   
   It doesn;t really tell you how so much as give you the knowledge you need to decide what it is you want to do and how to go about doing it.
   
   If you've enver wondered what actually makes your bike tick, this is a good read.



4. I don't think I've ever read a book that achieves this level of clarity. To be honest, I'm still only on the third chapter, but I'm telling you, anyone who loves motorcycles must read this book once. KC takes you by the hand and explains in painstaking, un-boring detail how every little bit inside works. He tells you how the engineers who built the thing reasoned the design of that particular bit, how the physical or chemical or both properties of the elements of that part interact. Involved as it sounds, this is a technical text that is unputdownable at the same level as some of other favourite books, like Stephen king's Cujo, Ayn Rand's Fountainhead etc.



5. There's no better explanatory text on all aspects of motorcycle performance. Way to go Kevin. We reference Kevin's work often in discussions at [...], the place for Buell Motorcycle Enthusiasts.

No comments about How To Pinstripe (Motorbooks Workshop).